it’s is friday. full week. time for another dose of video insanity showcasing spoken word singing (a.k.a. bad music). combining chain smoking, baldness, a slow & steady zoom-in, kojak floating in space, a giant blonde women’s loving gaze, full body tan, creamy, hushed speaking tones, shirts with no buttons, & the art of soft focus - it can only be telly savalas singing ‘if.’ don’t watch this if you are high - you will implode.
Monthly Archive for January, 2007
a really cool (meaning: futuristic & sci-fi) looking prototype boat debut on the san francisco bay. check out sfgate’s article on spider ship on the bay. this boat called ‘proteus’ and was invented by ugo conti and is a new prototype of wave adaptive modular vessels, or WAM-V for short. the proteus can carry two tons of cargo, has flexible, spider-like legs, can go thousands of miles, ride on shallow water or lagoons, has a cabin that sleeps 4 and can be lowered into the water, and the flexible legs ride & adjust to the surface of the water. there are more pics of the proteus on the sfgate article. looks more like a water strider than a spider to me. but any giant insect-boat look-a-like is totally winning in my book.
wow - i have been going to the bathroom all wrong these last 30+ years. at least that’s what i get from watching this animated japanese instructional video on potty training called how to poop. there are no songs nor any signing, i do not teleport onto the toilet seat like this animated kid does, my feces and urine do not laugh and smile back at me, no sound effects to alert me of impending bathroom trip, and no pinata breaks open after i take a dump (well, maybe it does somewhere in the world, which is kind of nice when you think about it). be sure to watch for the live action segment at the end - grunting never looked so cute. watch. learn. enjoy.
some very intense, imaginative, disturbing, beautiful, and provocative photos can be seen in a project titled starlight meadows by jason king. briliant imagery and composition the images. starlight meadows was “designed as a story and a puzzle both for me and for anyone that interacts with it” (quoting jason king). the design of the site is really well done too. i also like the closing statement on the website: “Sometimes I wonder if I created the characters or if the characters were already here and I just gave them masks.” thanks tony for the link. via daily monkey and via neatorama.
so there’s a party in your mouth … and everybody’s communist. rad graphic and t-shirt spotted on laughing squid. for sale at threadless t-shirts (selling like hot cakes). design by tom burns (now with poster for sale too!) too good!
just had a minor earthquake here (northern california) about 45 minutes ago. no worries though - all is well. it was a small shaker. the real-time earthquake maps of the U.S. Geological Survey Earthquake Hazards Program of northern california tells me it was a minor quake of 3.5 in magnitude near san martin/morgan hill california at 9:43:22 AM (PST) on Wednesday, January 17, 2007. they’ve even got real-time fault maps too! screengrab of recent usgs earthquake activity in all of california, screengrab of usgs real-time earthquake activity in san martin/morgan hill california. screengrab of usgs real-time map showing the recently active eathquake faults in northern california.
the mash-up kings and queens over at club bootie have released their 2006 best of bootie cd. just like last years 2005 best of bootie mix, their 2006 selection is also free (yes, free) to download as either one lumped together zip file (108 megabytes), or track by track. so nice! 21 tracks total (bonus tracks on their website). they even threw in some lovely cd cover art too! thank you D from bootiesf for the heads up!
my friend daniel shot some great surf video footage at the beginning of this year in oahu (that’s like, hawaii, yo). it’s being featured on surfline dot com (currently the top requested/most watch video too). here’s a link to the video page - and also a direct link to the just the video (so you can skip ads). edited and put together rather nicely with music by Balkan Beat Box. congrats daniel!
really liking this wine box computer case mod created by my friend jay. fully functional and working PC! complete with corks for the power and reset buttons. quoting jay: “I wanted to build a media center PC, but avoid having a grey or beige box in the living room. Here’s what I came up with.” that’s awesome! jay also mentioned he’s taking suggestions for names for the mighty wine box case mod, so feel free to post suggestions in the comments.
tickets for the 2007 burning man festival go on sale tomorrow - wednesday, january 17th, 2007 - at 10am. starting price for tickets is at a hefty $195 each, followed by a second tier at $225 each, and a third tier at $250 each. this years burning man theme is the green man, which seems to focus on humanity’s relationship to nature as well as put a green, eco-friendly face (and also marketing spin, depending on how you look at it) on the event. gotta love the irony. one move to make burning man ‘green’ and also appeal to current and new environmentally conscious ticket buyers comes from coolingman - a project aimed at offsetting greenhouse gases for the festival’s activities. more info and links on going carbon neutral can be found on wikipedia. personally i look at this type of carbon trading as a way of allowing groups and individuals to continue with their current rate of consumption without any actual reduction in activities that cause pollution. it’s a bit like conservation through consumerism, where greater luxuries, consumption, and pollution can be rationalized and permitted by simply throwing money at it’s ecological impact through buying carbon credits. it’s convenient like a credit card, but it doesn’t raise eco-consciousness. anyway, what was i talking about? oh yeah, that big eco-fest party in the desert - burning man.
here’s a very nice environmentally friendly vehicle from the french company venturi electric called the eclectic (great pics & forum post on the dexigner website too). deemed the ‘first energy autonomous vehicle‘ it is powered using 100% renewable energy: solar and wind. the eclectic is 1st solar production vehicle and it is the 1st production vehicle that can be directly recharged with a personal wind turbine. this means that the eclectic can access the energy needed to power it by deploying its wind turbine, using solar cells or, if necessary, find a simple electric plug (which can also use solar energy). no oil or fossil fuels (gas, coal) needed. the eclectic will have a range of 31 miles (50 kilometers) and a top speed of 31 mph (50 kph) making it best for urban travel and campus areas. more photos and info on the venturi eclectic website. via treehugger via dexigner.
hammering another nail in the spoken word coffin of self expression comes a lethal, full force, wide-collared dose of 1970’s william shatner acting/singing ‘Taxi’. serious. powerful. enlightening. watching this, i realize this is how i must come across to my friends when I smoke a lot of pot & get really high. they may actually be having a conversation, but i just keep going on & on about a taxi ride or my own random tirade like some guy at a bus stop talking to pigeons. wow. i see my future in this youtube clip. therefore, it is good.
don’t let the very overwhelming smells of excessive drakkar noir and/or axe body spray use combined with hair gel and bad cocaine keep you from visiting this next site. yes, it’s the hot chicks with douchebags website. it is a fascinating phenomenon witnessed at countless bars and clubs over the world. all compiled for your hating pleasure. can’t wait to see myself on there someday. thanks to a kugel for the linky.
a very happy belated new year to the 12 or 13 people who visit this site on a semi-regular basis! i hope your agreements and resolutions are in order and that you’re able to leave anything unwanted back in 2006 (this includes everything from bad decisions, karma, and even unsightly nostril hair). you deserve it! i just returned from a long and lovely wedding/new years vacation combination in mexico (guadalajara, chapala, and puerto vallarta) and will hopefully have something to post or say in the next few days. maybe some photos. maybe not. anyway, happy 2007!